RESTORING THE EFFECTS OF CRIME
CLAIRE BONHAM
Prison Fellowship England and Wales is a Christian charity that works through volunteers to bring real and dynamic change to the lives of prisoners and their families through prayer, pastoral care and practical support. We were founded on prayer, and for the first few years of Prison Fellowship's existence in England and Wales we were unable to go into prisons. Prayer is still the basis for everything we do. We have over 120 prayer groups around England and Wales, and support most of the prisons in the country.
Prison Fellowship aims to restore the lives of all those affected by crime. The effects of crime are far ranging - they affect prisoners themselves, victims of crime, and their families, and the local community. Why do we seek to restore lives? As Christians we believe that everyone is redeemable, that every life deserves to be restored. We have hope - ‘hope rooted in our belief that God offers redemption even to the most broken of people' as the Chaplain of HMP Littlehey said recently. Everyone deserves a second chance, a chance to be restored, and particularly those in prison whom the rest of society has often given up on.
One way our volunteers do this is through our Sycamore Tree course, a restorative justice course based on the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19). On the course, prisoners come face to face with a victim of crime, and it gives them the opportunity to explore the effects of crime on victims, offenders and the community, and to discuss what it would mean to take responsibility for their personal actions. One prisoner explains how the course helped her turn her life around:
‘Whilst in prison I was encouraged to do the Sycamore Tree course by friends who had already completed it, they said it would be good for me. During the course, to represent the effect that crime has, there was a bowl of water on the floor which was calm and still. Then an orange was thrown into the bowl. How it disturbed the water, what a mess it made! That shocked me, at that moment something inside of me broke - reality - the message had got through.
I was asked to write a letter to say sorry for my wrongdoing and read it out. This was hard but the volunteers and Chaplaincy team were very supportive. This gave me an opportunity to express myself, to say sorry to God (which was important to me - He knew what was in my heart) and to others on behalf of my victims. I took responsibility and this gave me a release from my guilt. For me it was not about the certificate, it was about the change within me - a valuable experience. The course equipped me with the values for how I live today; I learnt the importance of paying back what I owe and making amends. I am so glad I listened and attended the course. I thank God for the good work He does. For His forgiveness.'
We need to grow our team of volunteers to pray and to give up their time to reach even more prisoners with the message of hope and restoration. You can help up by signing up to receive information and prayer requests for our work on info@prisonfellowship.org.uk or to find out more about volunteering with us or donating please visit our website www.prisonfellowship.org.uk
Prison Fellowship, through its
volunteers, works for the restoration of the lives of prisoners and victims,
and their families. We support these groups in practical ways and help to
break the cycle of reoffending. Prison Fellowship now has over 1,400
volunteers in England and Wales and is represented in almost all of the prisons
in the country.
Source: Prayer for Today
